Patients Prefer Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Disease Management

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies can either urge patients to monitor their vital signs and report the results to clinicians, or they can do so automatically using wearable or at-home technology.

Remote patient monitoring can help with chronic disease management and outpatient recovery. Providers can monitor changes in blood glucose levels in a chronic disease context, for example, to determine when a patient’s diabetes is not being controlled appropriately. The provider may intervene and collaborate with the patient to improve disease management.

RPM enables outpatient care visits to take place at home. Patients can receive acute care at home rather than in a hospital environment under the hospital-at-home paradigm. Remote patient monitoring systems are used to monitor vital signs, and home health aides can visit on a regular basis to check progress and assist as needed.

Types of remote patient monitoring for chronic disease management at home

Modern remote patient monitoring devices collect a multitude of health data, ranging from heart rate to blood pressure, without the supervision of a health care provider. The FDA has approved the use of noninvasive equipment that measures common physiological markers remotely by hospitals — at least until the COVID-19 epidemic is resolved.

The new FDA policy is applicable to the following RPM device types:

• Electrocardiographs (ECGs)
• Oximeters
• Blood pressure monitors
• Breathing frequency monitors 

What are the challenges that chronic disease management patients are facing?

The following sections talk about some of the most important problems that people who have chronic illnesses face and how remote patient monitoring is working to solve them for them:

Cost. Because chronic illnesses necessitate the use of healthcare services on a more frequent basis, significant expenditures are unavoidable. It costs more than two-thirds of all health care money to treat chronic diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Physical limitations. According to the World Health Organization, understanding and managing the side effects of chronic illnesses, particularly medication side effects, is an important concern for individuals suffering from chronic diseases. 

Those suffering from chronic diseases experience both severe and minor bodily symptoms, and they must learn to manage them while maintaining their current way of life. It is possible for chronic conditions to interfere with a person’s everyday activities, preventing them from participating in typical social activities with their family and friends. Living with new physical limitations and adjusting to a new way of life is one of the most difficult parts of chronic illness, which affects roughly half of all those who are affected by it.

Emotional challenges. Physical limitations caused by chronic diseases are merely the tip of the iceberg; significant emotional challenges also occur as a result of these conditions. Furthermore, learning that a disease may be incurable can have a major emotional impact on the person who is suffering from it. People who have long-term illnesses face a lot of emotional hurdles, like fear, denial, anger, and/or despair.

Medication administration and coordination of care. Care for patients with more than one chronic condition can be complex and requires more coordination than the average patient. Patients with various chronic diseases will have multiple doctors, who may or may not be working collaboratively to manage the patient as a holistic unit. 

As a result, people with more than one chronic ailment can encounter difficulty in managing more than one drug or disease. Some medications can make others less effective, requiring care coordination for the patient. Increasing care management resources for chronic disease sufferers is crucial for the patient’s optimal care.

How can remote patient monitoring help with chronic disease management challenges for patients?

Patients benefit from RPM’s cost-cutting measure. Avoiding unnecessary visits, minimizing the time spent with healthcare providers when they do visit, and achieving better outcomes all result in future medical care costs being reduced. Equally significant, RPM technology improves patient involvement. Patients who are engaged are more likely to adhere to medical suggestions and treatment regimens. This increases the efficiency of healthcare efforts and decreases the likelihood of requiring extra therapy. Engaged patients with long-term illnesses are also easier to keep track of, which means more consistent care and fewer emergency situations.

Hospitalizations have decreased. RPM lowers the number of hospitalizations and emergency department visits, notably in patients with COPD or cardiovascular illness. Because healthcare professionals are monitoring patient stats in real time, they may make immediate adjustments to medication without the need for patients to visit the hospital if an alarming change in blood pressure, heart rate, or oxygen saturation happens.

Linktop’s 6-in-1 remote health monitor collects six key health data points, including oximetry, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and blood glucose, in addition to ECG characteristics.

Emotion Sharing. Despite the fact that patients’ emotions are closely linked to their sense of well-being.This is despite its well-known clinical value in treating chronic diseases.To address these concerns, it is necessary to investigate alternate means of gathering patients’ emotions, the most suitable of which is via a remote monitoring system.

Demand for healthcare professionals is declining. It should come as no surprise that chronic diseases exert a substantial strain on healthcare providers. The use of RPM, on the other hand, enables practitioners to manage their time and resources more effectively. Physicians can give their full attention to the sickest patients in their care without having to deal with a lot of interruptions because they use “reserved clinical hours.”

Enhancement of acute management. Patients no longer have to stand in huge lines in the emergency hospital or at the doctor’s office just to get a simple medication change. They can do so online. RPM, for example, permits diabetics to swiftly increase their insulin levels in the event that their blood glucose levels become uncontrollably high. Because they can deal with the situation right away, they are much less likely to get very sick.